Friday, November 16, 2012

Remembering Somalis for their capacity to deal with adversity: Mark Bowden

''In some parts of the country, like in Somaliland in the north-west, there is an incredible capacity for development—very effective agricultural schemes and access to services''. Mark Bowden

Interview: Mark
Bowden

- Mark Bowden, the former Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, was
recently appointed to lead humanitarian operations in Afghanistan. Before he
left for Kabul, he spoke to OCHA about his experiences in Somalia, where he
spent the majority of his four years responding to one of the most acute
humanitarian emergencies in the world. Famine conditions were declared in large
parts of southern Somalia in July 2011, and an intensifying conflict made it
difficult for humanitarian organizations to get assistance to people in need.
The famine conditions were lifted in February 2012, mostly due to an exceptional
harvest and a massive aid operation.

Q. You were in Somalia for four
years throughout famine and conflict. What were some of the most challenging
decisions you had to make?

One of them was the declaration of famine
itself… The difficulty with it was to try and clarify the technical basis for
the decisions. There was pressure not to declare famine because people didn’t
understand the criteria that were being used.

I spoke on behalf of
everybody, the whole of the humanitarian community, which was very unified
around that particular decision and the importance of declaring famine. Having
done it, we realized that we changed the whole nature of the way assistance was
being offered. There were some concerns on whether we should have acted earlier,
but we technically could not make a declaration of famine. We had expressed our
concerns a lot earlier about moving towards famine, but it wasn’t until the
declaration that things really began to change.

One of the other key
challenges that I faced was when we had the first bombings in the first two
years of my time in Somalia. We had quite a few assassinations of humanitarian
workers and a difficult environment for them to work in. The challenges were on
when to speak out and whether speaking out would put people in more danger.
Learning how to talk about the challenges facing humanitarian workers and
creating the humanitarian space for them to work is also one of the biggest
issues surrounding my job.

Q. Has the humanitarian access improved
given the recent political strides made in the country?

Yes and no.
The political change has only affected certain parts of the country. People need
to realize that large parts of Somalia are still under the control of Al Shabaab
and are not accessible to international organizations. Not all Somali
organizations have access either. The security situation has changed and there
have been improvements in places like Mogadishu, but it would be unwise to say
that it is more secure.

The worry in these environments is that as the
war moves into a different phase, different tactics are used and humanitarian
personnel may be targeted again. Personally, I hope that that doesn’t happen and
that we have learned from experience. I think we have also invested a lot more
in far better security and risk management in these environments.

Q. What
is the one thing you remember about the Somali people?

What I remember
about Somalis is their resilience, and their capacity to come back and deal with
quite incredible adversity. In some parts of the country, like in Somaliland in
the north-west, there is an incredible capacity for development—very effective
agricultural schemes and access to services. What I remember the most is the
incredible diversity that exists between the movement towards development and a
really deep humanitarian crisis.

There have also been other visits that
have shocked me. I have been to camps for displaced people and some of the
conditions in many parts of Mogadishu and in some of the other towns are far
worse than in Darfur or anywhere else. There are conditions of overcrowding,
poor shelters and sanitation congestion, but it is a very, very complex issue to
deal with because it is caught up with property issues.

Q. How do you
think you made a difference in the lives of Somalis in need?

As a
humanitarian community, flawed as it may have been, most Somalis would remember
us for responding to the famine and making it public, drawing attention to the
international community and stopping the world at large from walking away from
its responsibilities. I think that the humanitarian community as a whole worked
very effectively together at that time.

Q. Are you looking forward to
your new assignment in Afghanistan?

I am very much looking forward to it.
I’ve learned how to work in a challenging security environment while in Somalia,
but I recognize that it will be a very different assignment. I very much look
forward to a whole new series of challenges.

Q. Next year is going to be
a challenging time for humanitarian organizations in Afghanistan given the
drawdown of the international military. What are your concerns?

There
are concerns about what it means in terms of security, but it is also very much
an opportunity—an opportunity for UN agencies to find a bit more of their own
space in developing more appropriate partnerships that could lead towards
normalization in the country. I think with a large military presence it is very
difficult to work towards more normal relationships, so we also need to look at
it in terms of the opportunities that it offers rather than just the threats
that it could potentially pose.